You Will Not Remember Me
by Katie.Madison
Summary: Uchiha Itachi walks into a bakery in the middle of nowhere and meets a girl he finds himself intrigued by, much to his own surprise. However, it has been a while since he has done much of anything with a girl... Will he finally be able to open up? Or is this just a one-night stand? And what do Orochimaru and kekkei genkais have to do with anything! (UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION)
1. A Little Off Road Bakery

**Disclaimer: **I do _not own _Naruto.

**You Will Not Remember Me**

- _A Little Off-Road Bakery -_

A tall man walked down an empty road late at night; dragging his feet behind him, creating small, sand clouds in his wake. From beneath the rim of his wide straw hat, he glanced up and tried to find the moon, only to realize it was the re-start of the lunar cycle that day, so there was no moon.

'A _new_ moon, a clean slate for every month,' he mused.

Seemingly unresponsive, the man lowered his eyes and focused instead on the things around him; buzzing insects in the humid spring evening, beady-eyed rodents scuttling around his feet, people meeting together for a bit of relaxed conversation behind layers of glass and wood.

Immersed, the man subconsciously approached the entrance of a small bakery with painted ceilings and glass front walls in the middle of the village's main road. Its dim yellow lights illuminated his path, the front of his cloak and even warmed his feet while its lingering brown sugar smell wafted out of the opened front door and piqued his interest.

Interested, he stopped moving and turned to look inside the establishment, only to be greeted by his own reflection glaring at him from the reflective surface on one of the front windows.

The majority of the man's appearance was obscured by his strange outfit; a black and red coat, sandals, pants and a straw hat. His coat and pants were blood-stained but in these times, fights and battles were common and not one person had given him a second look. The thought was disconcerting, making him scowl slightly – hidden by his coat collar - but at least he did not stand out. The only descriptive things that could be said about his own personal appearance were that he was pale-skinned from the his feet and the area around his eyes, tall, lean, and that his eyes were black.

Returning his attention to the bakery's interior, he noted that there were a total of seven people inside the building; five patrons, a waitress and a cook, whom he analyzed with practiced speed.

Two elder men seated directly in front of him, were nursing big tankards of a frothy amber-looking drink, hands bandaged from some sort of hard labour, mining, welding or contracting. Behind them, there were two middle-aged women, who were talking animatedly, most likely about other women, over some kind of round sweet in a large pink box in front of them.

A baker was behind an open window, rubbing at its counter with a rag while taking down bits of notepad paper on a wire hung across it horizontally. He flicked at something out of sight, turning the back lights out and exited the restaurant after waving at the waitress, a pissed-off brunette leaning over the counter.

She nodded back, and with a flick of her wrist, closed the shutters over the open window and drew forward all the curtains, showing easy power over wind. She was conversing with the last patron, a girl wearing a defeated expression and a hitai-ate as a ribbon, to hold back her purple hair. She was obviously a ninja, chunin judging by the amount of papers stuffed into her clipboard and bags – and a lightning-technique user judging by the rubber coating on her gloves.

Combined, the two would have posed a formidable enemy to any normal ninja but the tall man walked confidently into the bakery. He had deemed them to be,- if absolutely necessary – easily beatable.

Walking to the register, he scanned the hours of operation and the clock above. There was an hour till closing. He figured he might get a green tea, some dango, and read something by the window for a while before returning to his hotel room.

Besides, it is not like someone was waiting for him at his room anymore, or anywhere else for that matter.

* * *

Over the humming of the chef cleaning the counter, the waitress was recounting some story to her friend-

"And then I was like, seriously? I mean it was a B-rank mission that took nine full days and _that's_ what they're going to pay me? I know, I know, new jonin gets crappy pay, whatever, but like seriously, major depression. So I had to take two extra shifts here so we can pay the landlord."

"I'm surprised our landlord won't even cut us a break," the chunin said, her vocal chords straining as she bent over to pick up a fallen notebook, "I mean we are highly respectable ninja and his son's in my freaking class."

"Yeah... But he's not that bad. Bet he thinks I'm psycho or something" the waitress-jonin said, absent-mindedly adjusting her name tag, "He probably won't even ask for rent... especially after that last time I was distracted watching TV and I accidentally waved a kunai at him instead of the roll of money when he came for the rent payment when you were working overtime at the academy last month-" she said breathlessly.

Just then they noticed an unusually dressed man enter the bakery.

In an average-sized village like Iwagakure, per say, he would have been ignored. However, due to the size and obscurity of this village, not many newcomers ever immigrated and as a result, everyone knew everyone, at least by face, so the two were surprised to see the complete stranger.

Wordlessly, he went to go sit at an empty table before, hunching forward. His black hair and hat obscured his face but not the glint of light hitting metal off his forehead protector.

The waitress raised her eyebrows at the desk-dwelling chunin who shrugged back. She had not heard of any new shinobi coming town that fit his description. The jonin stifled a small yawn. Protocol for spotting a foreign ninja involved asking all these lengthy, useless questions that could be easily bluffed anyway, so the waitress rubbed her face a bit and began searching for her notepad under the counter mumbling something under her breathe-

"...so long as he pays with legitimate money, I don't really care. Unless he tips like a cheap bastard, then we'll put him in the bingo book."

The chunin tried to control laughing at her fellow kunoichi's antics and followed her with her eyes as she walked around the counter to take down the new patron's orders. Soon she zoned out, barely registering the bells ringing when the two middle-aged women exited the bakery. Her eyes rested on the curtains swept off the floors by the incoming wind until she heard-

"Do you by any chance, currently have _Hanami dango?_"

The chunin looked over at the pair. The stranger held his hat by the brim to prevent it from falling off in the breeze so he looked expressionless. Her friend, however, looked confused, mouth curled to the side as she absently flicked her hands to restrain the current-

"_You_ want _dango_? The pretty, girly dango with green, pink and white?"

"I believe it is called Hanami dango and that it's coloring has to do more with the flavors than who consumes it."

"WHOA! Calm down there tough guy. Alright then, how many skewers would you like?"

"I'll take four."

"There are three dango on each skewer."

"I know."

"Ok... So how many do you want packed, then?"

"I do not want any packed."

"So you want a set of cabbage rolls, three plates of onigiri and four skewers of Hanami dango, all right here."

"I will have a green tea as well."

The waitress blinked. Normally, the tired jonin would have bit her tongue and walked off to complete the order but because she was tired and miserable she could not stop herself from deadpanning-

"REALLY? Are you SURE your taste buds can handle this EXPLOSION of flavors? And how 'bout I get an extra five or six skewers for you?"

Slowly, the stranger looked up at the waitress, the picture of indifference, but unbeknownst to her, his mouth was trembling, like it would when one was holding in a yell or retort. The chunin caught the little tremor.

"Niha, leave him alone," she said stepping forward. "And I'm cashing in one of my IOUs. I want a black coffee and two skewers of Mitarashi dango."

"Yay, a dango party. I don't even know why so many people like dango I mean they have like zero taste. And seriously four skewers of dango, order the whole store why don't you? But you know what? I'll make those dango's but I think I'm going to charge extra for having to re-start the oven for all that dango..." Niha said to herself, making her way to the kitchen, pulling her features into an over-the-top bored expression.

* * *

As the sounds of a fire starting up traveled to her ears, the chunin suddenly realized something. She had only pulled the IOU because the stranger looked like he was going to yell or cry and in this irritability, Niha probably would have asphyxiated the poor guy. _However_, now the only two courses of action she could take were both equally awkward. She could sit alone at another table and ignore him completely throughout the meal or, sit down beside him and practice talking to the bottom-less pitted brick wall.

As the minutes drew on, she ran her hands through her purple hair and rationalized that even if he did not talk much, she might be able to weasel something out of him regarding the outside ninja world and subtly do the whole protocol.

So she decided to sit beside the tired looking man.

When he did not look up or nod to acknowledge her presence, she figured it could not hurt to pose a safe, vague question in the context of some friendly conversation.

"Don't worry about Niha; she's just worried about not making rent on time. I am Aida by the way. Who are you?"


	2. Sensitivity

**You Will Not Remember Me**

**-**_ Sensitivity -_

The stranger's mouth started to tremble, trying in vain not to smile at something he just recalled.

* * *

_"Nii-san, nii-san! Take me and Naruto on the ferris wheel again! Please, please, please!"_

_"Otouto, you two have been on that ride four times already. At this rate, you won't have enough tickets left to do anything else."_

_"But nii-san it's really fun! Isn't it Naruto? Come on, speak up! You want to go on it too! Naruto? Uh, where did you go? Naruto, get back here!" His brother sprinted off after the escaping hyper-active blonde, forgetting all about the ride. __The eleven year old shook his head at how possessive Sasuke was at just six years old. That blonde was going to go through hell with him during his teen years._

_He turned to face Shisui who had returned from buying tickets from a positively confused-looking volunteer. __"Come on!" Shisui called obliviously, pushing him forward, "Let's go enjoy the fair!" So they did just that; sight-seeing, attending performances and playing games in the tiny booths lining the main road, eventually returning to where they started._

_They were just about to hit a restaurant when they suddenly heard high-pitched soft sniffles coming from behind. Wordlessly, they agreed to go find the source and located a small girl all of four years old sniffling, clutching a single ticket to her chest.__"I-I-I wanted to w-w-win Teya a-a-a st-st-uffed mo-mo-monkey but I couldn't a-a-and n-n-now, I w-w-won't cause I on-on-ly have wa-wa-one ticket l-l-left," she cried showing the older boys a sad-looking crumpled ticket._

_His heart broke a little so he figured why not? He played the game, throwing three consecutive darts into the bull's-eye and won their most special prize, a monstrously huge blue and green elephant with a purple monkey riding its back. The girl immediately straddled the elephant sitting behind the monkey as another even younger girl came into view._

_The resulting little girls' smile threatened to swallow up the entirety of their tiny faces._

_"Oh, my hero," Shisui teased, batting his black eyelashes and clasping his fingers to the side of his face like some ultra-girly, whiny Disney princess. "And what a cutie too," he said, kissing the side of his forehead._

_"...Shisui, why are you so creepy," he mumbled under his breath._

_The two decided to get more tickets before hitting the restaurant but when Itachi asked for twenty, the volunteer narrowed her eye, twitched her lips and said,_

_"You two lovers, want the super special couple's package too?"_

_The eleven-year old was speechless, but Shisui decided that it was a good idea to creep out the already confused woman, by asking who she thought 'topped' in their relationship. It ended with her contorting her face into an eerily similar version of the waitress's, and putting out a 'gone for break,' sign before disappearing behind a set of curtains._

_'Ha, puzzling tired night-shift workers is too much fun' Shisui had said when they finally sat down for dinner._

* * *

The chunin misinterpreted the tension in his expression and spoke out, ordering another set of food items for herself and bringing the man back to his current location, the bakery. Distracted, the wind ninja stalked off to the back to complete the orders grumbling about tasteless food, leaving the two immediately. He took a deep breathe, schooling his features back into a neutral expression. Several minutes later, he noticed the heavy silence of the remaining ninja so he shifted his glance to the chunin, trying to analyze her in greater detail.

'Probably around my own age,' he estimated, 'and a tomboy of sorts or without a mother-figure judging by the badly-cut short purple hair, it resembles a raggedy version of Konan's.' She was also quite short, standing a good head and a half less than the other girl and wore her village's standard ninja attire, similar to Konoha's but with a blue jacket and grey shirt, folded back to reveal bruised wrists.

Watching her pick at burn on her left hand, he inferred that she was still working through the grueling beginner stage in her lightning nin-jutsu training where self-mutilation was practically a good thing.

Her body positioning was awkward; eyes flickering from his table to another then back again repeatedly.

He hoped she did not feel as though she needed to talk to him because she defended him-

-_but _she apparently did.

She shuffled over and sat down opposite him and introduced herself energetically, asking him who he was.

He stayed completely silent, un-moving as he tried to decide how to respond to that. Ordinarily he would _not _have replied or used some really generic name like 'Yagami' or 'Akira', but due to the secluded nature of this village, he doubted either choice was even necessary. Also, she asked him _who _he was, not for his name and such vague questions deserves vague answers. Also, and perhaps this was the biggest reason, he was feeling just the tiniest bit lonely after thinking about Shisui.

"Hello Aida, I am a Konoha ninja currently on a mission."

"Alright," she said in a sing-song voice, sounding defeated by his evasive answer, although, it was a genin mistake to give away her and her friend's names so quickly to a stranger in the first place. "Super top secret mission, got it," she said easily but tensing almost microscopically as she innocently added, "But, we haven't disclosed any information to any hidden villages requesting for such _powerful_ shinobi aid like _yourself_,"

'Sharing personal but useless facts combined with compliments and flattery to lull me into a false sense of security, in return for private Intel,' the stranger thought, catching onto her little play immediately as he moved forward to rest his chin on intertwined hands, 'Ineffective on me, but not completely hopeless if your target takes well to charming and attention.'

"That would make sense, seeing as that I'm not acting in behalf of your village. I'm acting on behalf of my own."

She visibly bristled and looked at him with slightly widened eyes and a lopsided scowl on the left side of her mouth. She sputtered slightly before she asked-

"_What_ are you_ doing_ here?"

"What everyone does here, stop for some rest and food before crossing the mountain-path to get to the next village over." He said, not faltering once, keeping his pace perfectly controlled and each word enunciated fully.

"Oh," she said tiredly, running her her fingers through her hair once more, not bothering with the innocently enthusiastic facade any longer, he was not falling for it and she did not really expect this normal-sounding guy of any suspicious activity.

* * *

He smirked at her abrupt change in personality. Just as he was about to comment, they heard the sound of a door smacking a door stopper untouched and a moment later, Niha's footsteps clattering on the hardwood as she re-entered the space, arms full with plates of dango, food and drinks.

"Let me know if you two dare-devils want anything really, _really, _flavorful because I think I saw some totally crazy FLAVORED WATER in the backroom," she said as she set the food on the table.

Niha heard a quiet deep voiced-laugh but she assumed it was a figment of her imagination along with the slight tilt of the stranger's lips. That smirk was probably just a play of shadows under his hat, too. Probably more likely options than Mr. Red-Clouds laughing.

"Ha ha _ha_. I don't think so Nee, too _risky_ for me. Although, another cream packet for the coffee would be nice," said Aida.

Smiling fakely, the brunette bowed, placing two packets on the table with both hands, and saluted once before she went over to manually rub down the tables just recently vacated by the construction workers.

Neither girl noticed that the stranger had placed his hat on the seat beside him and unbuttoned his cloak till mid-way down his torso until Aida heard a slight 'pop' sound along with the sound of a now two-dango skewer touching the plate.

Niha had not bothered looking over at the pair and was absent-mindedly humming a ballad under her breath but if she _was_ looking, she would have teased Aida _relentlessly_ for the rest of her life for the way she looked just then. Aida had her coffee lifted halfway up to her lips, contents swishing around dangerously close to the rim going fully unnoticed by her occupied wide eyes. Her grey irises were barely visible around her blown open pupils. The finishing touch was her now floor-level jaw.

The black-haired man had his eyes trained on the wall clock the entire time, acutely aware of Aida's eyes moving across his face and lower, but he ignored it. He sipped at the tea, inhaling the therapeutic steam and pondered the way his skin was feeling uncharacteristically sensitive.

His skin _tingled_...


	3. The MedicNin & The Special Info Nin

**You Will Not Remember Me**

-_The Medic-Nin & The Special Info Nin-_

Ignoring the foreign feeling on his skin, the stranger looked at Aida, who made no motion to close her mouth or look away. Normally, the master of intense eye-to-eye contact, he was forced to look away from her upraisal after several minutes. He ate another dango and took a sip of tea, appreciating the distraction the burning of his throat as the tea went down.

It suddenly occurred to him that he was _embarrassed_ and although nobody was looking, (and he did not exactly have a great reputation to live up to) he would not be able to live down the disgrace of _blushing because of someone random girl _in his own mind.

"Did your parents never teach you that it is rude to stare?" he said quickly after swallowing his fourth dango, in the hopes that she would look away.

Aida blushed brightly but she was not one to be insulted so she maintained eye contact and retorted rather hotly, "No, they didn't _live long_ enough to teach me anything." And as soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted it.

After all the long hours Niha had spent coming up with and documenting the perfect past to tell to anyone who ever asked, she had to blow it in a moment of rage. If he ever told anyone, and they got suspicious, they were screwed. She felt terribly guilty and slumped forward in her seat, trying to avoid eye contact with her table-mate and especially Niha.

The Konoha ninja was taken back, he had figured she did not have a mother at the very least so it was not the information that surprised him, but the emotion written on her face after she said it, seemed so _raw_, that he felt bad. It was not his intention to bring up something so painful.

"I didn't realize," he said softly, "I am terribly sorry. I have lost my parents too, I understand."

'What the fuck was that,' he thought, bringing up a hand to cover his mouth. He had never _ever _mentioned that to anyone. Granted, the entirety of the Akatsuki and the Konoha citizens knew it, but it felt different, more real when the weighted words left his own lips like that.

Aida looked up just as he lowered his hand back to the plate of onigiri before him. She was genuinely surprised. The stoic, mysterious man beside her seemed capable of carrying a conversation without revealing any information at all and yet he had something so personal to her. Still shocked, she nodded once and said, "Really? That's terrible. Were they ninja too?"

Downing the entirety of his tea, the black-haired man wondered how he had allowed this conversation to get out of hand so quickly.

"I... Yes, they were ninja," he replied thinking, 'short, clipped answers so she won't think I want to talk.'

Aida on the other hand figured that nobody would believe this visitor even if he were to disclose her information and that his controlled yet unexpected speech was pleasant. She rationalized that he did not know that she was not supposed to say that her parents here dead since in these times, being an orphan was almost normal. So she continued throwing caution to the wind.

Where it was caught.

"I see. Mine too. I have actually never met my mother; she died when I was an infant. Apparently, she used to be a woman too beautiful to be a medic-ninja, with long blonde hair and a gentle voice, and as you can see, I look _nothing _like her." She paused for a moment to close her eyes and run her fingers through her hair. Although the gesture was simple, the Konoha ninja caught the tremor in her lips as she bit them in frustration. Seems as though her beautiful mother was more than a bit of a sore spot for the not quite model-looking teenager.

He remembered his brother had a similar look on his face whenever their father had praised him without even acknowledging his accomplishments which were amazing in their own right. He gave a rare smile and waved his hand motioning for her her to continue."Niha says she'd never seen a more fierce-some sight as her when our old village was attacked with a highly infectious airborne disease. She was really good at what her job, and finding the cure to that disease was the last thing she did."

The male ninja wanted to poke himself in the eye with two of the empty dango skewers. She had confided in him so wholeheartedly that it would have been disgustingly rude to act uninterested and not respond. He decided he would try to keep the conversation focused on her and her family.

Additionally, he was also somewhat interested in her, which surprised even himself. He figured it had been a while since he had civilly talked with anyone that did not speak in shark analogies or third person.

"That is incredible, I'm sure you are very proud of her. What about your father? What kind of ninja was he?"

"My dad was a special information ninja before he met my mom but as soon as they realized she was pregnant, he took up a teaching post at the training academy so he would get to see me grow up. He raised after she took up her position as head-medic and even taught me some fire techniques he had invented himself. However, his favorite type of ninjutsu involved lightning. I'm trying to duplicate his techniques now. They are _really _difficult, though!"

"I can see. The burns on your hands are the results of your rigorous training, I presume," he said. She reached her hands out motioning that it was okay for him to touch the burns. Although conscious of the intimacy of the gesture, he reached forward and turned her palm over in his own, running his fingers over the shiny red skin.

She reminded him of Kakashi, another ANBU member from his time of service with the organization. He also was raised by his father; however he was incredibly talented, and had mastered his lightning jutsu by thirteen.

"So then, how did he pass?" he inquired, while reluctantly, ('_why reluctantly_?' his thoughts interjected) pulling his hands away from her to finish the last of his onigiri. Aida paused for a bit and reclined back into her chair.

She turned to face Niha.

* * *

The wind-ninja had been listening to their conversation as soon as Aida had mentioned her dead parents.

At first, the brunette was shocked that she would even dare to bring the subject up, and extremely angry. Normally, Niha acted really casually, taking everything in stride, using lighthearted sarcasm, but when necessary, she could be dangerously cold and unfeeling, able to commit _unspeakable_ actions when necessary.

She was ready to send Aida a piece of her mind in the form of coughing gas but as they continued, the waitress had began to calm down a bit, especially after the stranger said he was also an orphan. As she watched the two from her post at the cash register, she began to realize it was only natural for teenagers to want to feel a sense of companionship and not feel so alone in this world.

Even as Niha practically pulled her brown hair out when they touched hands, she knew she could not bring herself to be truly mad at Aida. Ever since she was seven years old, Niha had taught her to lie, build up facades and have no friends, because at the drop of a pin, the two might have needed to run away to the next town and start a new life. She had robbed Aida of her childhood and felt guilty about it every day.

Although, she never regretted it. Seven years ago, at thirteen years of age, Niha had figured that total isolationism would be the best protection from their pursuers and she still did.

Until they reached this safe haven where the citizens where so isolated, they were not even sure if it was the same date here as the rest of the world. They actually used their real names here. For five years, they had enjoyed being in this town and although understanding, Niha was not going to let Aida's teenage hormones ruin it for them.

If worst came to worst, she decided, she could always kill him.

And with that lovely thought, she nodded at Aida to start the story of their sad lives and continued filing her nails.


	4. The Kekkei Genkai

**You Will Not Remember Me**

_- The Kekkei Genkai -_

Aida let out a breath of air when she saw Niha's indifference. That meant she would not kill her when they got home that night.

"You know what?" the hazel-eyed woman said suddenly, sliding her hands into her coat and shouldering her bag. She walked to the two remaining patrons. "I am going to go home for tonight, I've got guard duty tomorrow, bleh. Aida, when you guys are done, close up and bring the keys home, alright?"

Aida nodded twice and collected the keys. Before exiting the restaurant, Niha placed a hand on both of their shoulders and whispered, with the full intent to make them feel awkward, "Use protection alright?"

The two teenagers blushed and looked to the floor, unable to meet each other's eyes.

"Are y-you crazy, N-Ni?"

Aida quickly shook her head and went back to her last two dango since there was no way in hell, a guy as handsome and talented as him would ever even _look_ at her if he was not so alone like right now. He, however, realized that his looks and talents would not be the reason anyone would never like him, but his unfortunate past and convoluted reasoning.

Affected by their own personal hells, the two ended up moving on to talk about what they were currently doing with their lives, he being impeccably guarded, and she acting scripted and awkward, while the tension in the air from the intimacy they had just shared, grew thicker and thicker.

Ultimately, they gave up talking altogether as even the heavy silence seemed better than hollow, awkward words.

* * *

As he left enough money to cover his meal, he found he missed the hot-headed persistence and passion he had glimpsed in Aida before. Those qualities had hid her deep insecurities and _loneliness_ that he was all too familiar with. The violette could not stop thinking about the sincerity and empathy in his handsome features when she had spoken about her parents and the gentleness with which he had held her hand. If she closed her eyes she could almost imagine that he had been reluctant to let go...

As the now familiar stranger sat back down, he noticed Aida was intently picking at her scarred hands again, bangs falling over her face to cover her light grey eyes. He felt that it was not _fair_ for him to just leave her without reason when she already had so many insecurities about herself.

He had an impressive internal fight over what to do.

Sighing deeply, he placed a hand under her chin and tilted her head up to lock their eyes. Aida's widened when she saw that his eyes were suddenly red with two black little commas circling the pupil. Not breaking the eye contact, he deactivated his sharingan and lowered his hands. Showing her his kekkei genkai was basically confessing to her who he was.

He gave her a minute to be shocked and two more to run away.

So after five minutes of silent sitting, he really did not know what to do.

"What is that?" she asked breathlessly.

Perhaps she had only heard of the sharingan and had not ever seen it or heard it described.

"It is my sharingan," he replied. She nodded slowly and finished off her cooled coffee.

"Like a kekkei genkai?"

"...Yes, for the once-renowned Uchiha clan," he said as forcefully as he could. However, the purple-haired girl seemed unable to take the hint.

"Real hassle those bloodline limits. They are the reason why I am here today," she commented, "Which I guess brings me back to how my father died, if you're still interested..." She trailed off to go back to picking her burns.

"My name is Uchiha Itachi," said the stranger loudly. He double checked if he was under a genjutsu or if the brunette had left some sort of time-activated, insanity poison on him. How could someone _not know_ about the Uchiha clan massacre? It had been three years ago but the story was still being covered by the local and international media!

Aida smiled encouragingly and took his hand in her own rougher one. "Don't worry; I wouldn't judge you for something you were born into. It's not your fault your family's issues were passed down onto you... My whole village was destroyed because of Niha's kekkei genkai, and I don't think she's ever truly forgiven herself because of it."

Ignoring the sudden,_ inappropriate_ rushing of blood from the comforting contact, Itachi leaned forward and motioned for her to continue. As she began to start her story, the magnitude and _familiarity_ of what she had just said about Niha's kekkei genkai dawned on him.

Re-arranging their hands so that he could hold hers instead, he silently hoped that her story was not the one he thought it was.

* * *

Niha pulled her hood over her head as she trudged along the side of the road. The sky was clear and dark, allowing all the lovely stars overhead to shine to their fullest. She reached her suite and climbed into bed remembering the first time she had seen stars.

* * *

When she was a little girl, she was allowed to spend her summers at her mother's old mansion, a rickety, multi-layered house atop a steep cliff. Every year she used to ask Grandpa how it was still standing after so many years in such a risky location, but he would only laugh, clap her on the back and say, "They don't build them like they used to!"

One night, when she and Grandpa were sitting on the roof waiting for Grandma to return with the tea, Niha had seen a tiny little fleck of something covered by layers of clouds. When she asked her grandpa what it was, he said it was a star.

Niha had never heard of a star. In the village her parents had raised her, the atmosphere was too humid to see stars and she had only seen pictures of them.

"Papa, show me more stars!" she had insisted curiously, reaching forward to touch them. Grandpa had scooped her up into his lap and promised her to show her the stars later but Niha persisted. It had been her last night with them for that year and she used to be a stubborn brat.

"The stars cannot be seen tonight, Niha, they are hiding behind the clouds," he had patiently explained .

But Niha would have none of that."Well then," she had said in that humorously cocky tone that children sometimes had, "If it's just the clouds, then I'll move the clouds!" And just like that, she flicked the clouds away with a light-switch-flicking motion.

Her grandparents had been in shock and had immediately rushed to the village where they had spoken in desperate, low voices with her parents and the village elders. The only words Niha remembered were her grandma's, "You are a very different girl, a special girl, just like my mama, she built our house and her spirit still keeps it together...Be _careful_, my child."

She and Grandpa had passed away the next year in a reportedly '_random_' ninja attack and her abilities had never been discussed again.

* * *

Crawling into bed, Niha noticed a beautiful red butterfly land on her open window. It had a beautiful black polka dot pattern and reminded her of the striking red color of that guy at the restaurant's coat. For some reason, that_ really_ worried her.

Staring at the bug, she felt like she was forgetting something fatally important and she had no idea why. Cautiously, she threw a tiny perfume aerosol into the air and directed it into Aida's bag using air currents. Feeling somewhat more relieved that she could track Aida, she fell into a restless sleep.


	5. Pedophile Creepers

**You Will Not Remember Me**

_- Pedophile Creepers -_

"Well. Um, because Niha would actually kill me if I told you the name of her, I mean _our_ previous village, I won't say it, but you should know that it was a rather small village, constructed by the base of a low, mountainous waterfall, so most ninja there practiced some sort of water or rock release technique although, obviously there were some exceptions."

Itachi nodded. There were only three villages that fit that description in his knowledge.

"...I won't say I absolutely loved it there because honestly, for the most part it was a fairly backwards, conservative community, so the only female ninjas that actually worked, were the best of the prodigies. I probably wouldn't even have been able to pass the academy testing," elaborated the indigo-haired girl, trying to recall any memories she still remembered.

"Ultimately, it was a small village with nothing exceptional about it. Then suddenly, when I was around five, there was this huge outbreak of a chemically-synthesized virus. It was passed through physical contact, I think and it was highly contagious. It deteriorated the functions of the most complex body parts, like the liver, intestines and lungs and then the simpler ones like muscle, bone and nerve tissue... It was _so bad. _Nobody went out or even stood next to each other. Life seemed to pause as the medic-nin tried to figure something out, but by the time my mother did, she and most of the shinobi were too far damaged to ever work again. All of their chakra processors were completely fried."

Itachi wondered what a viral attack had to do with Niha's kekkei genkai but with what Aida was saying, it sounded like one of Chiyo's illegally distributed chakra-engineered viruses. Their potency was known to be so great that even Tsunade-sama struggled with finding a cure or a way to stop the contamination.

"So the village elder's called for help from the other villages but since we were so isolated, the journey to our village from the closest one took over thirty hours, with continuous travel. During that period is when _he _came."

"He?"

"Well, Niha won't tell me his name. She says she forgets herself, but I think she's just being over-protective. I don't understand her sometimes, she's always so bubbly, cheerful and _perfect, _but then she gets so angry and her eyes narrow and she keeps me under house arrest and I just, I can't stand it!" she ranted. "...But that doesn't matter. From what I remember and the things Niha screams out at night, he seemed to be a pale skinned man of average height, built quite thin, with dark hair, almost like mine I guess, but longer. He had this evil, crackly voice and, yeah I know this is going to sound weird, but I _swear, _he rode a snake; a long purple-colored _snake!"_

"Fuck..." said Itachi, covering his hands with one of his eyes, "His name is, Orochimaru..."

"Oro-oro-Oroimaru, what?"

"Orochimaru. Hmm. He was probably observing your village waiting for an opening to attack it and cease whomever he wanted..."

"H-How did y-you know it was a whom?"

"...Pardon me?"

"How did you know he was after someone and not just like to raid us or something? He-he was after Niha, screaming her name out, calling her, 'The Little Wind Angel.' ."

"That is just so wrong," said Itachi. He was trying to not barf up his food. He knew the evil Sannin was creepy, but that was pushing it even for him. "Orochimaru is one of the most powerful ninja in the world, with a liking of snakes, and taking over the bodies of small gifted children. I should know because not only have we met and fought, he also tried to take over mine maybe last year or so."

"Was he after your sharganin?"

"_Sharingan_, yes."

"Wow, you must be really strong if you managed to escape him!"

"Just strong enough... Say, how did you manage to escape then? Niha's genkai? If you say he attacked seven years ago, she must have been twelve? Eleven?"

"Thirteen. Well... Both her parents and any other ninja with half a jutsu left in them fought Orochimaru while my dad stood over watch of me and her. But then there was this _evil_-looking thing that came out of nowhere. It was really short and it had a long tail and it attacked my father with some sort of poison. Niha was in the upstairs room trying to see what was going on so it didn't see her. It looked over me but after the attack just sort of walked out."

"Hmm. Probably Sasori... Orochimaru and him were partners back then and he must have dragged him out with him."

"Is he _another_ pedophile creeper?"

" Pedophile, no. Creeper, in a sense, yes. But you need not worry about him; he probably could not care less about either of you."

"Still, he attacked my father and I could just-... Anyway, Niha ran downstairs just after he left and somehow managed to make the air in the vicinity not transmit sound-waves or smell. Then, she tried to carry me and him both away, but she wasn't strong enough to move with us both, so my father pleaded her to leave him behind, take as much money and food as possible and to take care of herself and me."

"Oh no..."

"And so she did. And now after fake stories, fake identities, more than a few unspeakable actions, arguments, suicidal thoughts on both parts, and me running away thrice, here we are and here am I, telling the third person in the world about our misfortune. Hahaha."

"...I, I..."

_"Yeah, smooth Aida, because obviously the best way to fli- I mean talk to nice, good-looking guys is to tell them about your orphaned past and bi-polar makeshift older sister..._" She pulled her hands out of his and re-fastened her bag onto her shoulder, examining the strap. It had just seemed so natural talking to the good-looking man and she had never gotten the chance to interact with any other teens. She was so awkward and anti-social. She did not even know how to flirt! She re-opened a scab on her fore-arm. Niha and her freaking plans...

Itachi sighed for what seemed like the millionth time in this conversation. He reached forward and began to twirl a strand of her badly-cut hair in his fingers, tugging lightly to get her to look up.

"You are... everything you need to be and more, Aida," he whispered, before slanting his lips across hers for a soft, much-too-short kiss. He was fairly sure that what he had said made even less sense than Kisame's shark analogies, but it was one simple kiss, he figured. The sharingan user pulled back and placed his hat on his head. His whole body tingled and his mouth felt like it was on fire. It had been way too long since he had done that and he _had never _been so bold with a girl he barely knew.

He turned around and trudged to the entrance when he felt someone shakily grab his arm and pull him around.

"Haven't _your _parents ever taught you that it was rude to kiss and run, Itachi?" teased the grey-eyed girl as she pulled forward his collar and stood tip-toe to kiss him of her own accord.

Itachi vaguely imagined Shisui fist pumping in the background as he wrapped his arms around her thin waist and propped her up against the nearest wall.


End file.
